Look! The Finnish results are in, and it is clear that asking about alcohol consumption during pregnancy doesn’t yield accurate results. In fact, of the 3,000 samples tested, positive Phosphatidylethanol (PEth) results during pregnancy were 8.4% or 253 individuals, despite self-reporting alcohol consumption being as low as 1.9% in 2020 but as high as 14% in 2017.
People may not realize how much they drink, or they may be embarrassed by the amount, but no matter the reason, we know that people do not accurately report their alcohol intake. What’s scarier, at least in my mind, is that people admit alcohol consumption during pregnancy at all. Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy that they do, but the consequences they can face are steep, including having their newborns taken into the custody of Child Protective Services. Yes, babies need to be cared for, but is that really the solution?
If we believe that addiction is a disease…as we say we do…shouldn’t we find better outcomes? Do we take away babies when a birthing person can’t manage type 2 diabetes? I have the answer: we don’t. I’m not here to pit one disease against another; I’m here to ask that we treat addiction as the disease we know it is.
And treating it as a disease means testing for its impact…as they are in Finland. The goal is to test pregnant individuals to see if they are using alcohol, and, if they are, HELP THEM. It’s not a gotcha. The goal isn’t to catch them using alcohol so the Finnish government can put sanctions on the new parents! The tests are done early in pregnancy and repeated for those who are positive. In this way, those who need help get it! It’s not rocket science. It’s treating a disease like a disease without blaming those who have it for being weak-willed or uncaring.
The conclusion of the study indicates:
“To prevent alcohol-related harm to fetuses, early recognition of [prenatal alcohol exposure] PAE is essential. There is no safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy. PEth screening with low cut-offs may help in recognizing prenatal alcohol consumption that otherwise would remain unidentified. […] A positive PEth result should lead to a careful examination of the pregnant person’s situation and a new PEth test within 2–4 weeks. PEth testing is applicable to all stages of pregnancy and easy to reperform in uncertain cases. We suggest that adding sensitive PEth testing to a prenatal blood screening program is worth considering.”
The emphasis is mine because I’m not a doctor or researcher, but I’m excited that some are beating my drum! Alcohol is a toxin, and it’s use during pregnancy is the leading cause of preventable developmental disabilities. We’ve spent far too much time pretending that alcohol isn’t a dangerous, deadly substance. It is, and we know it. We have an easy test! (Check out USDTL.com for more information.) We know what to do! Now we just need to do what’s right.
The most vulnerable among us are counting on it.
References
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acer.15418
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